Keudell Morrison Wealth Management Has $922,000 Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Keudell Morrison Wealth Management lessened its holdings in shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,607 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 53 shares during the quarter. Keudell Morrison Wealth Management’s holdings in Accenture were worth $922,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 70.6% during the 3rd quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 35,591 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $12,581,000 after purchasing an additional 14,724 shares in the last quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp increased its holdings in Accenture by 18.7% during the 2nd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 172,199 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $52,247,000 after purchasing an additional 27,168 shares in the last quarter. Radnor Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Accenture by 21.6% during the 3rd quarter. Radnor Capital Management LLC now owns 22,131 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $7,823,000 after purchasing an additional 3,930 shares in the last quarter. M&G Plc bought a new position in Accenture during the 1st quarter worth about $19,007,000. Finally, J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Accenture by 41.6% during the 3rd quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 12,216 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $4,318,000 after purchasing an additional 3,586 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Up 0.1 %

ACN stock traded up $0.25 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $356.38. 189,438 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,709,063. Accenture plc has a 1-year low of $278.69 and a 1-year high of $387.51. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $352.96 and a 200-day simple moving average of $324.80. The stock has a market capitalization of $222.80 billion, a PE ratio of 31.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.02 and a beta of 1.25.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a net margin of 11.20% and a return on equity of 26.83%. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.71 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the information technology services provider to reacquire up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be given a $1.48 dividend. This represents a $5.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.66%. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. Accenture’s payout ratio is presently 51.79%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total value of $1,096,746.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,062.20. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other Accenture news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 3,191 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.70, for a total transaction of $1,096,746.70. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,062.20. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total transaction of $3,385,440.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 36,298 shares of company stock worth $13,372,661. Corporate insiders own 0.07% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ACN has been the subject of a number of research reports. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Accenture from $377.00 to $389.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Bank of America raised their price objective on Accenture from $365.00 to $388.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Citigroup raised their price objective on Accenture from $350.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Accenture from $400.00 to $415.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Piper Sandler upgraded Accenture from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $329.00 to $395.00 in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $368.23.

About Accenture

Accenture plc, a professional services company, provides strategy and consulting, industry X, song, and technology and operation services worldwide. The company offers application services, including agile transformation, DevOps, application modernization, enterprise architecture, software and quality engineering, data management; intelligent automation comprising robotic process automation, natural language processing, and virtual agents; and application management services, as well as software engineering services; strategy and consulting services; data and analytics strategy, data discovery and augmentation, data management and beyond, data democratization, and industrialized solutions comprising turnkey analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions; metaverse; and sustainability services.